Cup-and-saucer holder



April 1953 l. MELINE CUPAND-SAUCER HOLDER Filed March 50, 1949 PatentedApr. 14, 1953 CUP-AND-SAUOER 110mm Irving Meline, Boston, Mass,assignorto- GlenbroOkeManufacturing Company f Connecticut, Incorporated,New Haven,.Cnn., a, corporation of Connecticut I ApplicationMarch30,1949, Serial-No. 84,439

2. Claims. 1

'I'he subject of the present invention is a devicecapable of holding a.saucer and a cup with the cup approximately centered in front of thesaucer, and of supporting a cup and a saucer thus assembled, either one.horizontal surface, such. as a table, a shelf or the like, or suspendedfrom a, hook or like support.

The object of the invention is to afford means by which the cup andsaucer may be thus assembled, firmly held, and supported or suspended,which is simple but efficient in construction and function and can befabricated at low cost. The invention comprises in itsmain. essentials abase, adapted to support and. confine the lower rim ofa saucer, orsimilar dish, an upright element or member, a complemental gripper inmovable guided engagement with the upright adapted to overlie the upper,rim of a, plate so engaged with the base and having, a, hook forreceiving the handle of a cup, and a spring disposed to exert force. onthe gripper tending to move it toward thebase when the gripper iswithdrawn fromfthe base far enough to distort. the spring and put itunder stress. In the following specification there is described and inthe ac.- companying drawings, illustrated}. a, cup.v and saucer holderwhich embodies the principlesv of the invention in their preferred form,

In these drawings- Fig. 1' is a front elevation of the holder in theposition it-occupies when, resting on, a level support;

Fig. 2 is a sideviewof theholder'as seen from the right hand side ofFig. 1;.

Fig; 3 is a perspective, view. of the holder.

Now describing the holderthuszillustratedwith reference to thepositionit occupies whenresting on a level support, themain or bodypart'vcomprises an upright portion or element a, two lateral elements band c which extend oppositely to one another from the lower end of theupright a and are nearly in alinement with each other but have a slightdownward and rearward inclination, forwardly extending portions d and ewhich project with an upright inclination from the outer ends of themembers I) and 0, respectively, downwardly and forwardly extendingelements f and g which are joined with the forward ends of the portions11 and e, respectively, forwardly and upwardly extending portions h andi joined to the lower ends of the members I and g, and a cross bar aconnected to the forward ends of the members it and i and extendingacross the space between them. The parts b to 7' constitute the base.

The bends or angles 7c and l at thejunctions of the members b and d andc and e, as also thebends or anglesm and 1. between themembers f andhand the members, g and 2', respectively, formfeet which are adapted to.rest on ahorizontal surface; and are separated from one another-bothlaterally and. inthe front to rear direction. far enough. to provideastable base. The members It and z. provide'rests for supporting thelower rim of asaucer or plate at opposite sides of: a vertical. planethrough the center of, the saucer; the; bar 7', serves as a retainerwhich is raised. above the. plane of the feet is, Z, m and n andeX-tendsin front of that portion of the; rim of a saucer which liesbetween the rests h. and i. The angles 0 and 10 between the members atand jand the members eandg, respectively, may serve as knees or bracesadapted to engage the rear surface of a saucer and. cooperate with the.retainer bar to hold thelower rim; of the-saucer. from rearward movementwhen the saucer is held. in forcible engagement. with the base.

A. retainer or gripper q is. coupled. with the baseprecedently describedby a. helical spring r so mounted thatv the coilsof its. helix surroundthe upright a. The lower end of the spring carries aneye s which isengaged with an eye. t associated with the base. and;. the upper end ofthe; spring has aneye u. which is. interlocked with an eyeo onthe.gripperq. Thus the gripper is confined in close association with theup.- right and is enabled to. be. moved along the upright away from thebase thereby. stretching the spring. It is. to be noted that the springhelix is considerably shorter than the length ofthe uprightabove. thepointwhere. the spring is. connected with the base, whereby asubstantial range of movement is afforded to the retainer, enabling itto be passed over the upper rim of a saucer which is supported by thebase, and to accommodate different saucers varying considerably indiameter.

The gripper is made with an intermediate dowardly facing hook portion 20which is adapted to be passed over and engaged with the upper rim of asaucer, and with an upwardly facing terminal hook portion a: which isadapted to receive the handle of a cup, when the gripper is thus engagedwith a saucer, and is then located so that the cup is suspended in frontof the engaged saucer, as represented by broken lines in Figs. 1 and 2.When the gripper is not thus engaged with a saucer, it hangs from theupper end of the spring 1', which is at all fi sars times held in placeby the upright a, which it surrounds.

The upper end of the upright a is provided with an eye or loop J, whichmay be passed over a hook or the like for suspending the holder andserves also as a stop for limiting upward distention of the spring.

Preferably the parts thus described are made of wire, the upright andbase being formed from one single piece of wire of sufliciently heavygauge to provide adequate stiffness; the gripper q being formed of asecond piece of wire also of adequately heavy gauge, and the springbeing formed of a helix of relatively fine spring wire.

The piece of wire forming the main body or portion is curled at one endon a curve of sufficiently large diameter to make the loopy. At adistance from this loop sufficient to provide a straight upright 11, thewire is bent laterally at approximately right angles to form the member2). It is further bent forwardly at the point is through slightly morethan a right angle to provide the forwardly extending member cl, thenbent downwardly at approximately right angles at the point and bentforwardly again at the point m to provide the forward rest h. Themembers d, f and h are approximately in one plane, and are so disposedthat, when resting on a level support, the members at and h areforwardly and upwardly inclined, While the member 1 is forwardly anddownwardly inclined.

A further bend of the wire at the outer end of the member h at an angleto the before mentioned plane slightly greater than a right angleprovides the cross bar a; and further bends at the opposite end of thecross bar, and at the points 71., p and I, provide the members i, g, eand c. The members i, g and Z are in approximately the same plane, whichis nearly parallel with the plane containing the members 0!, ,f and h,but preferably these planes are convergent in the rear to frontdirection. The extremity of the wire at the inner end of the member 0 isbent up to form an end portion 2 beside and parallel to the lower endportion of the upright a, and its extreme end is curled over to form theeye It. A clip or strap [0 of sheet metal is curled around the adjacentparts of the upright a and terminal 2 close to their junctions with theparts b and c. This clip is tightly applied and holds the contiguousparts ofthe base framework in rigid connection. The wire of which thegripper q is made is curled at one end to provide the eye 1') and issuitably bent with reverse bends near the opposite end and inwardlytherefrom to provide the oppositely disposed hooks w and 9:. Between theeye 1) and hook w it is additionally bent so that it may moreconveniently pass over the rim of a saucer or plate at its upper side.This last mentioned bend, however, is not an essential feature and thegripper may be straight, or bent with any desired curvature orangularity in the portion between the terminal eye t and the hook w.

It will be apparent that the holder herein described may be used forholding a plate or dish only without using the hook a: to support a cup,

, or with a modified formation wherein the hook at is eliminated and theretainer is provided with only a single hook, such as the hook w,arranged for engaging a plate or the like.

What I claim'is:

. l. A holder for a saucer, plate or the like comprising a base, asubstantially upright element rising from the base, and a gripper, thebase having lateral elements extending substantially opposite to oneanother from said upright element, forwardly and upwardly extendingportions joined to the outer extremities of said lateral elements, thejunctions between said lateral elements and forwardly extending portionsproviding a pair of rear feet, downwardly and forwardly extendingelements joined to the forward ends of said forwardly extendingportions, the junctions between said last named elements and portionsconstituting knees, forwardly and upwardly extending rests joined to thelower ends of the downwardly extending elements, the junctions betweensaid rests and last named elements forming a forward pair of feet, and aretainer bar extending between the outer ends of said rests; said rests,knees and retainer being adapted to support the rim of a saucer or thelike and engage the forward and rear surfaces of such rim, and thegripper being resiliently connected with the base and movablelongitudinally of the upright element for overlapping engagement withthe upper rim of a saucer or the like so supported by the base.

2. A holder according to claim 1, in which the gripper is formed with anintermediate hook portion adapted to embrace and engage the upper rim ofa saucer or the like so supported by the base, and has a terminal hookat the forward sideof the so engaged saucer adapted to receive thehandle of a cup and hold the cup in front of the saucer.

IRVING MELINE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName

